Do you believe that the future is set? How about foreseen? Can we tell what is going to happen in the future? We can certainly make some educated guesses based on the direction that technology is headed in. We can think about how easily it will be to travel, what entertainment will be like and how businesses will be run. We can think about all these things because the cards are already on the table. The latest advanced in technology are showing the way to the future and where we will be in ten, twenty or fifty years. Let’s think about just some of the advances that we are almost certain to see in our lifetime.

Transport

Will we ever see the population of Earth abandon this planet and head to new pastures on a different planet? Perhaps Mars? That’s unclear. What is clear however is that we might be at the beginning of a new space race. Bookies are already taking bids on which will make it to Mars first, NASA or SpaceX.

Aside from that, it seems the popularity of The Martian might have encouraged governments to be bolder about heading to the red planet. It seems almost certain that more space travel is in our future. At the very least, we’ll get the chance to take some rather expensive holidays into space, thanks to Virgin, even if just for an hour or so.

What else does the future hold for transport? This year marks the time when Marty Mcfly travelled Back To The Future In The Classic Films. Movie fans might remember that the film suggested flying cars could be a possibility. Unfortunately, scientists are nowhere near the tech they need to make this happen. That said, self-driving cars will almost certainly be on the market in a few more years. It seems that the fun of driving might soon be behind us.

Business

What will tech do for businesses in the future? We imagine the technology will continue to make it cheaper to set up and run a business. The manufacturing industry is guaranteed to see costs come crashing down, thanks to microbots. Microbots are tiny, insect-like robots that are already in use in some factories. They are incredibly precise and complete a number of tasks bigger manufacturing bots are capable of completing. They are also incredibly inexpensive. One cheap PCB (printed control panel) can quite easily run these little helpers. In a few years, you might see an entire factory run by tiny little robots.

Entertainment

Those hoping for the holodeck from Star Trek: Next Generation are certain to be disappointed. Holograms are still a long way off from being able to generate an entire virtual reality. That said, other forms of virtual reality are almost within our grasp. Both Microsoft and Sony will introduce VR sets into the market next year. Thus far, first impressions of the gadgets have offered nothing but glowing reviews.

So you see, by examining the tech we have now, we can see the path of the future. But, we can only look ahead so far. There is no way to know what earth will look like one hundred years from now. Or, if we will even still populate it.